What a pain it is getting from Gatwick to Heathrow to get a connection back to the US. I am currently in the American Airlines Lounge at Heathrow after the excruciatingly long and annoying process of getting from one airport to the other.

Normally, I would do everything possible to avoid having to switch airports in the same city as I had to do this Gatwick to Heathrow madness once before years ago and should’ve known better. I clearly forgot how annoying it was. If you don’t have a friend or your own car to drive you between the two you have to take the National Express bus which allegedly takes an hour or so and leaves about every 15 minutes. This doesn’t happen. It just took my bus nearly 2 hours to get here without any real traffic. Seeing as to how unfamiliar I’m with the city, I’d wished that I’d booked on Limo Find. I also had to wait in the National Express Lounge at Gatwick Airport which isn’t a lounge, it’s simply a small area in the airport terminal near the exit so you can see the busses coming through, for another 45 minutes before actually fighting my way onto the bus.

Additionally, there seems to be no order to people getting on the bus as in first come first served, people were just all pushing to get on and I felt like I was in a third world country where people don’t know what personal space is all about.

Finally, unless you book it online beforehand, you can’t book for a specific bus at the alleged time they say it’ll be there. You just buy the ticket and hope to get on the next one. My feeling is that even if you booked online beforehand you wouldn’t even be guaranteed getting on because everyone is pushing to get on.

In my view, this was very unusual for London, where they are usually spot on in their handling of transportation and tourism. Luckily for me, I have plenty of time and was still able to get on an earlier flight home, which I am currently waiting for, after connecting from Jersey this morning. I guess you can’t be perfect but next time I will just wait a day to get a connection at Heathrow as opposed to ever again switching airports.

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